Good food for good health
Seonaidh always said that good food is an important part of the equation. It is not always easy to eat healthy in today's economy. When possible, make a small garden. The more you grow at home, the less pesticides and round up you are consuming. Even container gardening can help. Kale, for example is very nutritious and easy to grow. Rhubarb will feed you forever if planted once, as will blackberries and asparagus. If you have more space, plant an apple tree or a current bush. Did you know, approx. 1 cup of black currents gives you 27 % of your fiber, plus vitamins A,C,E,and K, as well as potassium, calcium, iron, manganese, and phosphorus. The vit C you get from 1 cup of black currents is 201% of your daily value!
This page will be slowly updated from time to time with our favorite recipes.
Rhubarb Elixer
Rhubarb elixir is versatile and can be used as a sauce or as a drink. Rhubarb is high in fiber and contains rhaponticin, which helps regulate blood sugar. It also is high in vitamins and helps decrease inflammation. And, it just tastes wonderful!
Chop up fresh rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces. Put 4 cups into a pot. Now add 2 cups of water and 3/4th cup of sugar. You can decrease the sugar or use honey or maple syrup to make it healthier. Add 2 whole cloves, and bring slowly to a boil. Stir frequently. Turn the heat down and simmer until rhubarb is falling apart. Place in a heat proof glass container such as a ball jar and let cool. Once cool, refrigerate. This can be added to water or seltzer or lemonade for a delicious drink. It also can be poured onto cakes, ice cream, or even fish. Remember, being a Celtic Buddhist means being creative! Let your imagination and curiosity go wild.
Picture on the left here is of one of our many rhubarb plants.
Picture is of our freshly made cheese curds before salting.
Cheese curds
We make fresh cheese curds whenever we have an excess of goat milk. We buy our vegetarian rennet and our cheese culture from New England Cheese making Supply Co. They have a great website for anyone interested!
Celtic Buddhist Cheese Curd recipe
2 Gallons of raw milk.
We use our Nigerian dwarf goat milk, but cow milk is also fine.
1/8 tsp mesophilic cheese culture
this imparts a nice cheddar flavor and acidifies the milk
1/2 tsp vegetarian rennet
salt, garlic salt, or whatever flavoring you prefer.
Heat the milk slowly to 88 degrees F. Use a low/med heat. stir frequently.
Sprinkle the mesophilic cheese culture over the surface of the warmed milk and wait a few minutes befor gently stirring it well into the milk. Now let the milk sit for about an hour.
Note: you want the milk to stay around 88 degrees. So, you can put a lid on the pot and wrap the pot in a towel or keep the pot in warm water. We typically end up accidentally heating the milk to 95. The culture still takes ok and then we are less worried about it cooling down too much. Check the temp every 20 or 30 min tho, while you are new to the process.
Next take a small cup and add about 1/4th cup of warm, not hot, water. Add your rennet to the water. now gently pour your rennet/water mixture into your warm milk stirring well.
Cover the pot with a lid and again with a towel, unless you have it in warm water because we want to let the milk/rennet mix sit for an hour, but we want it to stay warm , around the 88 degrees. Just let it sit and do not disturb the milk/rennet mix for an hour.
After an hour, check the milk. The cheese should now be solid but soft and swimming in the whey. leave it all in the pot but cut up the cheese curds into 1 inch pieces. They will be floating about in the rennet and that is fine. You may wish to watch a you tube video to be sure yours looks right. Let the curds ripen in the whey for about 30 min.
Now remove the curds from the whey and place them in a linen or flour clothe lined colander. Place some weight on the cheese bundle to help drain off residual whey. after another 15 min, open the clothe and cut up the curds again. rewrap in the clothe and place in the colander again. Repeat this process until the curds are firm and dryish.
Once the curds are firm and dry, sprinkle them with garlic salt, or salt and spices of your choosing. Then refrigerate and eat!
Note: we have learned the hard way that one always wants to use stainless steel pots and spoons when making cheese. Stainless steel cleans flawlessly insuring that a contaminant will not ruin your hard labors.